Friday, November 13, 2015

Dispatches from Pluto - Richard Grant

Grant is an adventure writer who "has rafted down uncharted African rivers and fled from bandits in Mexico's Sierra Madre" and documented his adventures in his two previous memoirs. But this time the adventure is in Pluto, Mississippi....

Grant and his girlfriend Mariah decide to leave their tiny apartment in New York City - and they end up buying an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. They can grow their own food and become self sufficient - right? It'll work....

With both humour and pathos, Grant documents that first year in Pluto - learning to garden, hunt, avoid snakes, varmints and patching up the house. I found their transition from city dwellers to country folk absorbing, but it is the people they meet that truly make the book so fascinating. Generous neighbours, blues legends, eclectic characters and even Morgan Freeman populate the pages of Dispatches From Pluto. Grant's comfort zone is pretty wide - he seems to quite enjoy new experiences and new people.

Grant could not have written these 'dispatches' without touching on race relations and poverty in this Southern state. Grant's keen observations are thoughtful, sensitive and honest. The description of Delta culture was captivating and compelling.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all of the books I review are either purchased by me or borrowed from the library. When a review copy has been received from an author, publisher or company, it is in exchange for a fair review and has no effect on my opinion of the book. There is no monetary compensation for reviews. All reviews are my own personal reaction to and opinion of the book.